damned_institute | Night 70: Underground Lake

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Night 70: Underground Lake

[From here.]

They appeared in the same area as they always did when they transported, but a different part of it. As Guy found his feet unsteadily settle on the other bank of the shore, where the ferryman had taken them the night before, he almost stumbled right into the lapping water of the lake. He stopped himself up, sucking in a breath as he came face-to-face with one of those drowned ghouls.

Guy regained his balance, backed away, and then glanced at the torches that only sort of lit the way into the tunnel where they would be heading next. It was just as dark and mysterious as it had been last night, but they couldn't let some apprehension stop them now.

"Well, at least that ferryman kept his word," Guy said. "No toll, no crossing the river, we're just... here." Which meant that they probably shouldn't waste any time seeing where the tunnel led.

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Since they were all ready (or at least as ready as they could be), Guy followed after Claude, making sure that he kept his flashlight pointed forward. It was dark down here, and while he saw a few lights flickering in the distance, they were still far off.

He wanted to have Anise take up the rear, since she was carrying quite a bit for her small frame and because she didn't have her preferred weapon on hand, whereas Guy and Claude did. So he made sure to work his way ahead of her, figuring that she'd hang back if only not to trigger his phobia.

At Claude's comment, Guy observed the deep grooves in the dirt. They seemed to fit the pattern of some kind of vehicle, but Guy didn't see any sign of an actual train anywhere. Then again, if there had actually been one functioning down here, they probably would have noticed before now, right?

"So this definitely leads somewhere." The question was where.

Anise was left with the rear, which she wasn’t about to complain about. If they came across enemies on their path, the others were better at close-range combat. As they walked, though, she occasionally pointed her flashlight at the path behind them, making sure they weren’t being followed.

When Claude brought their attention to something on the ground, Anise looked down, too. “Do you think they were running mine carts through here?” It reminded her of some of the mine tunnels she and her friends had been through on their travels. Maybe the tunnel led to a mining site, a port, or a town or something. Whatever it was, it had to be better than the institute.

Yeah, it would kind of suck if they reached the end of the tunnel and only found a dead end. Granted, there was no guarantee that Landel or someone hadn't just detonated the tunnel at some point. But as long as there was a path ahead, Claude was willing to walk through it until they reached the other side.

"Maybe," Claude said in response to Anise. "I mean, it's not such a stretch to think they might have had to transport supplies at some point. Keeping their carts underground was probably the best way to keep their cargo secret."

And if that was true, there was a chance they would run into trouble sooner rather than later. "Let's keep an eye out for traps," he added, his expression growing more serious. That probably went without saying, but it never hurt to hear a reminder.

From what Guy can tell, these tracks seem too large to have held mine carts. It seems like whatever was being transported, it was something larger. Maybe it would make sense when they got to the end of wherever the tracks led, but for now all they could do was keep following them.

It was quiet down here -- not surprising, since they were deep underground, but Guy would have expected there to be some monsters posted here to get in their way. It was possible that they'd earned an easier trip after getting through all those trials, but Guy couldn't shake the feeling that they might just be jumping through Landel's hoops down here.

"Traps? Yeah, I guess you're right..." There were no monsters, but there could easily be something else set up to offer an obstacle. Guy moved his flashlight beam all around the tunnel, but nothing really stood out to him.

Traps, huh… Anise thought it was kind of weird that they hadn’t been ambushed yet, but it was worth keeping an eye out for stationary traps, too. “Getting tripped up by some cheap trick after coming this far would just suck,” she griped in agreement, giving another sweep with her flashlight to the space behind them. Other than the faint glint of the tracks on the ground, there didn’t seem to be anything noteworthy.

“I wonder how long this goes on…” she mumbled, mostly to herself, as she knew the others wouldn’t have an answer. The area all around the institute was mostly empty, save for the forest and that ruined town. In order to get to anywhere of note, there was a chance that they’d be walking for hours, maybe days, with no idea how close they were to an exit… assuming there was one.

Anise still had plenty of energy left, though, and it was too early to call for a break. All they could do was keep walking forward.

By now, the underground lake was a decent ways behind them. With three pairs of eyes keeping a lookout, Claude was confident that they could avoid anything truly nasty before it got out of control. "We'll be fine as long we're careful," he assured Anise.

As soon as he spoke, though, Claude thought it looked like the distant light up ahead was starting to move toward them -- and at a much more rapid pace than they were walking. Was his mind playing tricks on him? After rubbing his eyes, he squinted into the dark.

"Uhh, is it just me, or is that light at the end of the tunnel...getting closer?"

His question was punctuated by an approaching roar that became louder the closer the light came. Suddenly, Claude felt like he'd swallowed a bucket of ice cubes.

Guy had no idea how much longer they would be walking, but he was prepared for it to be a long journey. For them to actually get outside of the institute's influence and away from Landel, they would probably have to keep walking for a while. Hopefully the others would be able to keep their energy up even as their feet and legs started to get tired. Guy wasn't worried, though. He and Anise had gone on long journeys together, and he imagined that Claude had as well, before coming here.

While he did what he could to keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary, there wasn't really much to see.

Not until a light appeared in the distance, anyway. Guy figured that it was just some kind of lighting fixture at first, but when Claude brought up that it seemed to be moving closer, and at a rate too fast to match with their walking speed, Guy halted in his tracks.

"It's not just you," he said with a shake of his head. "What do you think it is?" Whatever it was, it couldn't be good, and Guy automatically tensed in response to the threat. Even if it didn't know what it was.

A light at the end of the tunnel? Anise looked up, hopeful, but what she saw was anything but reassuring. With its rapid movement and that loud noise... What could it be? A runaway mine cart?

"G-get off the tracks!" Anise cried, backing up against the tunnel wall. "They might try to run us over!" Whatever it was, it was moving fast. They wouldn't get off easily if it slammed into them.

An ominous horn cut through the tunnel, loud enough to shake anyone to their bones. That alone was enough to throw Claude into high alert. "It's a train!" he shouted, doing his best to keep the swelling panic from ebbing into his voice. Thankfully, Anise had the right idea. "Hug the wall as tightly as you can! Hurry!"

There was no way they'd be able to outrun that thing, and throwing themselves flat on the tracks would be suicide. Heart pounding against his rib cage, he struggled to breathe as he practically shoved his back into the wall, trying to follow his own advice.

It was that horn echoing through the tunnel, a sound so loud it hurt Guy's ears, that set him into action. Not that he hadn't been ready to make some kind of move even before that, but it did send a spike of panic through him as he realized there might not be any way to avoid this.

He followed the lead of the others, running to Claude's side and pushing himself up against the dirt wall, no consideration given to how dirty he might be at the end of it. He wouldn't care, so long as he came out of it alive.

It looked like he'd been right about the tracks being for something larger than a mine cart. Guy kept his gaze on the approaching light and before long the shape of the train started to form, even in the relative darkness. Guy sucked in a breath and then closed his eyes, both to shield his vision from the light and because he knew that now the only option was to wait for it to pass...

Anise wasn't entirely sure what the thing coming at them was, but it was immediately clear that it was bad, and that she was right to move away from the tracks. As the others joined her along the wall, she heeded Claude's advice and pressed back harder, squishing Tokunaga against the wall behind her.

As it drew closer, the light was practically blinding, and Anise squeezed her eyes shut to block it out, silently praying that they had enough space for it to pass without hurting them.

As the oncoming train raced closer, the ground rumbled beneath their feet. Is this it? Claude hopelessly wondered. Had they really come this far just to get mowed down like this? But what else could they have done differently?

There was no time for regrets now, unfortunately. Claude, too, squeezed his eyes shut and turned his face away from the bright light. When the horn sounded from right next to them, rattling his eardrums, he half expected to get crushed or pulled underneath the train. Instead, a harsh rush of wind whipped his hair against his neck and cheeks, freezing him in place as he heard the carts swiftly clatter along the tracks.

The ground shaking under his feet made Guy cling hard to the wall. He didn't want to be thrown off his feet by the momentum of the train, though he realized that was probably the best case scenario at this point. All he could do was hold his breath and wait for the inevitable --

While the sensation of it passing was definitely strong, almost enough to send him off balance, nothing collided into him. And as soon as it had been there, both the light and the sound of the train were gone.

Guy blinked his eyes open and then took in a breath, and that was when he realized that something had changed. He suddenly felt a burst of power within him. It was exactly like when he'd had his full strength returned to him in the coliseum, or that night when everyone's abilities had come back.

He stepped away from the wall and dusted himself off, looking back and forth between Claude and Anise. "Do you feel that? I can sense fonons in the air again."

Anise dug her toes into the dirt beneath her, pushing herself hard against the wall as the vehicle came, making her hair whip around wildly as it stormed through the tunnel, and at last, passed them completely. Once she was sure it was gone, Anise let out a sigh of relief and pushed her hair back to where it ought to be.

“That was scary…” she breathed, looking over at the rapidly fading light. “Where is it even going? … The lake?” There wasn’t a whole lot there, so it seemed strange.

But that wasn’t the only strange thing to consider, as Guy’s words made Anise pause to feel the air for herself. Sure enough, there was that faint feeling of energy in the atmosphere. Normally, she never thought much of it, but being without it for so long, it was an almost foreign feeling. Kind of like a big weight was lifted from her chest. “Hey… you’re right! Wait, this means…”

Anise gave the tunnel another glance in both directions to make sure it was safe, then took a big step into the center, where she’d have more room. She pulled Tokunaga off her back, brushed the dirt off of it, and held it before her as she began to focus.

The doll’s limbs began to stretch out, growing longer and thicker as its head and torso swelled up to several times their original size. It grew so large that Anise, who had been holding it by pinching the back of its head, was lifted up off the ground, supported by the now enormous doll. It hunched over a bit, allowing Anise to lean over the top of its head to face her friends.

“It worked! Look! Tokunaga’s back!” She wrapped her arms around its head, squeezing it affectionately before looking back the others with a puzzled expression. “But… why?”

When the danger had passed, Claude felt like his legs were about to give out. Thankfully, he caught his balance before he made a spectacle of himself, and he let out a heavy breath as he stepped away from the wall.

"Maybe it was an illusion," he said in response to Anise's question. "To scare us off or something?" It wouldn't have been the first time Landel had used similar tactics.

Well, regardless, it was out of sight which hopefully meant they could keep it out of mind. Besides, there were other things to draw their attention away from that near-death experience. Like the way Anise's doll suddenly grew to a beastly size.

"W-woah..." Startled, he took a step back. This wasn't the first time he'd seen Tokunaga in all its glory, but Claude still hadn't expected the abrupt change. "There are enough fonons here for you to do that?"

Pausing long enough to stare down the way they'd came, his mouth opened as if he'd been struck by a sudden thought. "Does that mean we're basically out of the Institute's range now?"

It sounded too good to be true.

Edited 2013-06-06 01:48 (UTC)

With the speed that train had been going, Guy imagined that if it had actually been there it would have run itself off the tracks and gone crashing into the lake, possibly scattering the bones of that ferryman in the process. No, chances were that Claude was right and it was just a very vivid illusion.

When Anise expanded Tokunaga into its full form, Guy couldn't help smiling. Anise just looked so much at home on top of that doll, and it was something he was used to seeing, something familiar and comforting in a strange way. He didn't really blame Claude for being surprised by it, though. It took some getting used to.

"Well, now you don't have to worry about your legs getting tired," Guy teased Anise. It was definitely a relief to be back at full strength, especially since they had no idea where they'd end up next.

Guy did have to wonder if they were really out of Landel's clutches at this point -- and more than that, why the Head Doctor would allow such a thing. "Could be," he said in response to Claude. "I wonder if that means that we won't end up back in our beds come morning, either." It was just as they'd suspected, but it was different now that it actually seemed to be happening. Guy could barely believe it.

At least they'd brought some supplies with them. Guy didn't know how long they would last, but it was better than nothing. He stared down the length of the tunnel that was still ahead of them and then nodded to both his friends. "Either way, we'd better keep moving."

Claude looked impressed, which made Anise even happier. “Eheh… well, it doesn’t take that much for me to use Tokunaga. Once we get out of this tunnel, I’d like to give my big artes a try!” It was going to be hard to be patient when she was so eager to see if she was at full power, but it would be hard to see an arte’s full effects in a narrow area… and there were also the dangers of people getting caught in the arte, or the tunnel collapsing…

Yeah, she could wait a little longer.

Guy’s comment was met with a wide grin. “If you get tired, maybe I can carry you,” she teased back at him.

The idea that they were out of the institute’s sphere of influence was an encouraging one, but Anise wasn’t sure she could believe it just yet. This could still be an elaborate setup for a trap. But despite her skepticism, she had to admit… after all those weeks of being helpless, it felt really, really good to have so much power at her disposal again.

For now, it looked like they were going back to walking. Anise used the straps of her shopping bag to tie it to Tokunaga’s neck, letting the doll carry all the weight of her supplies. Now she could just sit back and make herself comfortable for the rest of the trek.

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Night 70: Underground Lake

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